So this is somewhat of a "mini-site" . . . It's for a booking agency in Tucson, AZ. The goal is to get in, find your artist or agent, and get the agent (or artist) info as quickly as possible. It used to be a one-page affair, but they added an agent so it was time to expand.

Although the visual is pretty simple (one real "page"), the backend is this tricked out Textpattern CMS with a few plugins I had to write from scratch. Kind of an adventure, but now they can add an artist or an agent to their roster and it all indexes each other and organizes itself.

Most of the entries are only test entries but you get the idea. After they plug in their content and I migrate this to their own server (down for the moment) it'll go live . . . unless you guys end up telling me all sorts of reasons it sucks. :)

IE won't look as nice, and anything below a 5.0 browser gets text (their stats support it, so I figured I'd take advantage of that). So with all that said, here are the links:

Looks fantastic. I might add a splash of color somewhere, not sure where.

It could also benefit from some mod_rewrite. It's very simple at that level, so

lostbarrio/index.php?s=agents becomes
lostbarrio/agents/

Much better than the old one. :thumbsup:

rmedek

08-22-2005, 09:57 PM

It could also benefit from some mod_rewrite. It's very simple at that level, so

lostbarrio/index.php?s=agents becomes
lostbarrio/agents/

Yeah, tell me about it . . . the server is a Windows IIS, so no rewrite and lots of trouble with my friends PHP and MySql. That was my first thought about the site, because I'd like to get this site indexed as well as possible, and I'm not sure what options exist for clean URLs on an IIS server?

About color . . . I sort of got lost in the brown. I sort of dig it because it's the whole Tucson/desert thing, but maybe a photo or two in the content could brighten things up a bit?

chilipie

08-23-2005, 10:39 AM

Ooo, very tasty :) .

The part I like least is the menu; unless it's highlighted it's quite hard to read (particularly "Artists" and "Agents"). Have you thought about centering the whole site vertically? It looks fine and 1024*768, but when it's viewed at 1280*1024, there's just a little bit too much space at the bottom.

I know that was all criticism, but I'm diggin' the design as a whole ;) .

little_toaster

08-23-2005, 11:31 AM

i like the overall look;

I have always like transperancy, and so I like the main scrolling menu/content!

I also like the logo/heading look, nice font work!

good work! :)

Tristan Gray

08-23-2005, 01:36 PM

Design-wise I'm down with it. The full-width horizontal image is pretty common but you mix it up nicely with how you handle the link roll-overs and the scrollable content box. My only beef would be with the content itself, more images of these artists and their work. But that's probably something you'll have to take up with the client himself.

rmedek

08-23-2005, 06:10 PM

The part I like least is the menu; unless it's highlighted it's quite hard to read (particularly "Artists" and "Agents"). Have you thought about centering the whole site vertically? It looks fine and 1024*768, but when it's viewed at 1280*1024, there's just a little bit too much space at the bottom.

I sort of had issues with it, too... that's why the highlighting is there! :p I sort of ran out of ideas of where to place the nav. The hardest thing to figure out was how to get the highlight fade to start at the left and fade out just as it hits the content, no matter what the width. I settled for display: table-cell, but of course it doesn't work in IE.

I did think about centering it (I still do)... i just haven't done so because I'm already on the verge of "divitis" and I can't think of how to cut that back a bit yet. So to center the page vertically I'd need to add another wrapper div. Any suggestions on how to cut back on that?

My only beef would be with the content itself, more images of these artists and their work. But that's probably something you'll have to take up with the client himself.
Yeah, that's sort of a balance... they wanted the site to reflect more of the contact info rather than the artist themselves, to keep the site small and focused on booking, rather than an artist site, but I'm hoping they add some photos or some flashier descriptions (they can do that all from the CMS).

Thanks for the criticisms so far, guys, and thanks for the compliments, too! :)

Tristan Gray

08-23-2005, 06:26 PM

Luckily IE also sucks at transparency and so it all works out in the end. Love those roll-overs though really, and the scroll-able content area. I'm going to be coming here for crazy suggestions once I get my site under way in September. It is a very large project but I will finally be in control of the tools I use which means full MySQL/PHP/CSS/XML useage. Maybe even SiFR.

Green Beast

08-25-2005, 03:12 PM

Very cool site. I love it. Sweet rollovers as the others said. Colors are fine IMO. Not that it would hurt, I just don't think it's needed is all.

Good job!
Mike

Grant Palin

08-25-2005, 04:57 PM

Like everyone else seems to be saying, the navigation and rollovers are nice. I think the page layout is very different, and stands out (in a good way!). I also like the colour scheme - the colours contrast nicely and work well together.

NancyJ

08-25-2005, 05:37 PM

Well I'll go out on a limb and say I dont really care for it much...
The design looks nice enough but I dont like that the content (the important part) is only allotted 20% of the available screen space (in 1024x768), if I looked at it on my home PC I'm sure it would be almost an insignificant spec on the screen

Also, maybe its just my PC but in IE it looks awful!

Tristan Gray

08-25-2005, 05:43 PM

Well it looks fine to me on 1280x1024. If the content was like long paragraphs or something I'd agree because it would get super annoying trying to read from that little block but since it is mostly just list-type items I think it is fine. It certainly looks better in FF with the transparency but I like it in IE as well. You could make the little content box wider but then it would become to oblong and so I think you've got it just about as good as it will get. Although I might consider adding some texture to the sort of off-white eggshell type part above and below the stretched main image. Might make it too busy bt I'd give it a shot, the right texturization might kick it up a notch.

rmedek

08-25-2005, 05:44 PM

Also, maybe its just my PC but in IE it looks awful!
Could you be more specific so I know what I should fix?

rmedek

08-25-2005, 05:55 PM

If the content was like long paragraphs or something I'd agree because it would get super annoying trying to read from that little block but since it is mostly just list-type items I think it is fine.
This was my thought... the flow of the site should be:

"I like this band. They're booked by Lost Barrio Artists. Who should I contact there? How would I contact him/her?"

Which doesn't really allow for sprawling pages of content. The "News" section is sort of an afterthought, for example. If I had more of a "sit and read" sort of site I think I would go for a wider content area, flexible height page with two columns and probably no transparency under the main content. With that in mind, though, the content area I'm using isn't that much smaller than what's on most two/three column fixed width pages.

I'm working on the large empty space top and bottom. I was sort of hoping once your eyes got to the background picture they would sort of stay there, but I've heard enough to want to change it a bit. BTW, Chilipie, I just tried centering the page vertically, and although it looked okay in smaller resolutions, at higher ones I had too much space both TOP and bottom! So, pick my poision... I'll probably stay with fixed towards the top.

gsnedders

08-25-2005, 06:12 PM

Could you be more specific so I know what I should fix?
From VPC:
http://geoffers.dotgeek.org/lostbarrio.jpg

rmedek

08-25-2005, 06:34 PM

Erm, yes, I have VPC, too. :rolleyes:

I was wondering what Nancy's opinions were that made her think it looks awful.

Tristan Gray

08-25-2005, 06:51 PM

Yeah do not center the page vertically. It looks better as is. I wouldn't do too much with the top and bottom background parts either, keep it simple but just enough. Don't want to distract from the main image.